Stan Lee retakes the scripting duties for awhile with this one. Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia still plugging away on the line art. Everyone’s back in New York after their jungle adventure, and Spider-Man is happy to be swinging around in familiar environs. He thinks the Ka-Zar story will help boost The Bugle’s circulate (Even without pictures?) and decides to swing over and see if he can get some work. But when he gets there, he finds Randy Robertson doing what Randy Robertson does in this era: generating a socially conscious plotline. There’s a protest of the paper, and Randy seems to be leading it.
Naturally, it is this very moment that JJJ pulls up in his car for work. The big guy Randy seems to have been coordinating with gets in JJJ’s face, and well all know how patient and reasonable Jonah is most of the time, so…
Randy tries to keep his buddy (Josh, finally named), from beating up Jonah, and the crowd is about to descend into chaos, so Spider-Man swings in to save his nemesis.
Spidey leves Jameson hanging from a pipe on the side of the building, which gets the crowd laughing at him and defuses the tension. Jameson says he’s got something waiting for Spider-Man as he swings away, and given the cover of this issue, not too hard to guess what. Spidey’s not worried about that right now, though. He knows he’s not getting any work now, so he heads home to get the apartment ready. Harry Osborn’s getting out of the hospital, and the gang is throwing him a party. Aunt May came over to make snacks. Peter tells us Anna Watson moved away, and he worries Aunt May is lonely without her. But he puts on his usual demeanor as he comes home.
That’s just when the gang shows up. Gwen, MJ, various unnamed crowd fillers, and the surprise guest, one Flash Thompson. He’s been in the Army, but he’s finally been discharged, and is ready to return to the cast. Gwen seems to still have some affection for him, which gives MJ a chance to swoop in on Pete, who is pretty upset considering Harry will be here any second. And then he is.
Everything seems cool, but Pete has a weird feeling about Flash, of all people. He says there’s something ominous about him. No time to worry about that, though, as we move our scene to J. Jonah Jameson, who’s sneaking into the lab of Spencer Smythe, creator of JJJ’s many Spider Slayers. And he’s got a new one ready. This time, it’s shaped like a giant spider, because why not?
So, the next evening, JJJ is at the controls of the spider-bot, and finds Spider-Man out on patrol. He casually mentions Smythe built in some kinda gimmick so Spidey won’t know it’s coming (Sure, ok). But when he’s ready to strike, the robot won’t budge. He regains control and makes it follow Spidey, but once again, it fails to act at the right moment. Smythe has been overriding the controls, waiting for the right spot. Meanwhile, Spidey is noticing strange little devices scattered on the city’s rooftops. Seems likely to be related! Then, finally, both JJJ and Smythe think it’s time for action.
Spidey and the robot go a few rounds, the robot deploying a cutter for his web and demonstrating greater strength than previous models, Spidey always keeping a few steps ahead of it. And, unbeknownst to JJJ, Smythe still running the show. The robot keeps herding Spidey, like it has a destination in mind, and eventually smashes him into a building, rendering him unconscious. And now that it’s in there, it begins completely ignoring JJJ. This isn’t just any building, it houses something Smythe wants.
The robot takes off to deliver the “computer element” to Smythe, meaning JJJ’s plan to capture Spider-Man for the police is a bust. He’s furious, but also sure he can get Smythe to “fix” the robot and he can try again. Ol’ JJJ can be a real sucker. But why did Smythe involve him at all? Did he just need JJJ’s money to build the thing? It’s not totally clear. Anyway, Smythe helpfully exposits that the city hired him to install what’s basically a surveillance network, all those devices Spidey saw earlier, and now he’s stolen the master control to all of them. So he uses the cameras to locate and follow Spider-Man, and thusly…
Uh-oh! Things are going to get complicated next issue!